So…well… I know that you probably do not like my story as you used to but believe I do my best, or at least I try. Please don't be mean with the reviews… this is my Snape, this is my Hermione, this is my union… don't step in it. To the rest, thanks… I appreciate your support quite a lot.

So… I hope you do like it and please… I need feedback, what do you think of the story so far? … Are you liking it?

Well… here it is; chapter 19… enjoy!

Chapter 19: For the sake of the Order

The room has never felt so cold. Their chests have never been so utterly bitter. An abyss separated them now; what had she done?

"Severus…" she tried to say, she tried to explain, but it was useless. His heart was now so filled with hate and misery that nothing could she could say would change that.

"I beg you to shut up, Miss Granger," he suggested with his left hand on his chest; his expression only depicted pain.

"What's the matter?" she asked; her clothes as untidy as she had ever worn them.

"You stupid little girl. Nothing is the matter. Your little brain does not comprehend such delicate subjects. Now I know what you meant by "helping the Order"," he sarcastically said, slowly walking towards the fire.

"Yes," was all she said. How could she tell him that she had agreed to go down on this only for the sake of the Order? Maybe because it was partly true; she had also done it because he had broken her heart.

"The Order never requested the services of prostitutes, Miss Granger," he muttered looking melancholically into the fire, as if their happy honeymoon they had shared could be distinguished in the orange flames or the roaring fire.

"The Order never requested the services of a hypocrite," she shot back.

"You are wrong, Miss Granger. The Order has always needed the services of a sinner such as myself; someone whose soul is so dead not even the darkest of Dark Eaters can truly understand my nature," he almost whispered, "How could you have sunk so low?" he asked. But he wasn't looking for an answer. It was kind of a rhetorical question; something for which his mind kept looking for a rational explanation. Yet, his heart could not find it; yet his heart refused to accept it.

What's more, Hermione was unable to find the way of telling him she hadn't been penetrated by Draco; that she was only his.

"I did what I did for a reason," she started to explain, but he interrupted her; his soul filled with rage.

"You shouldn't have sold your body to that scum!" he shouted, throwing his Slytherin Brandy glass to the flames, which reacted quite energetically to the alcohol. He stepped back for the fire not to burn his robes for his wife had reduced his soul to ashes only minutes ago.

"I didn't," she simply said, slowly walking to where he was, "and if my own husband cannot trust my word, then I don't know who can," she alleged, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said, slightly smirking, "I heard it myself, Lucius heard it too…bloody hell, Miss Granger! Even the Dark Lord heard you, wherever he is!" he shouted, walking to where she was and taking her arms- her slender arms- on his firm strong hands.

"I…I…I…" she wanted to say, but he was shaking her so badly- as if he wanted to expel the demon that had taken over Hermione Granger- that she was unable to speak her mind, "I…I…" she tried to explain once again but even though he had stopped with his brusque movements, the hard surface she had created for no one to harm her, had melted under his touch. She hadn't realized that she craved his caress so much… but, unfortunately, she did. And when his hands first made contact with her skin, suddenly the solid core she had so perfectly shaped within, dissolved.

"What?" he whispered into her ear, "did he rape you?" he asked, caressing her cheek. He longed for her skin as well; oh gods! How much he loved the shaved skin between her legs! He had sculpted a part of her according to his personal desires and now he missed those little brown curls of her emerging from her bare skin.

"No," she answered between tears.

"Then I cannot understand what in the name of Merlin obliged you to do something like that!" he said, removing his hands from her arms and thus leaving her completely unprotected. He didn't know that Hermione Granger had grown, in as little as five days, so dependant on him that she required his presence to feel safe.

And so he left her completely alone in the darkest corner of the living room, trying hard not to feel guilty.

"Please, don't leave me," she begged almost in a whisper. She was sobbing uncontrollably now; he could tell by the tears that ran down her cheek and the soft sighs she made every time she breathed. But as much as he wanted to touch her, to caress her, to comfort her, to wipe her tears away with a handkerchief, as a real Englishman would do, his pride and his principles stood in the way. They were too heavy to ignore, even as he stood in front of the only woman he had ever loved.

"I will be in my chambers. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to Floo the house- elves for help," he coldly said, daring not to look into her eyes. Those eyes that resembled so much Medusa's that he knew for a fact that he would turn to stone if he searched love in those brown spheres.

And so he did not look back, but kept walking through the narrow corridor that led to his room. He left her laying there, in the middle of the stone floor; her tears were sculpting a path on her expressions that would soon be filled with much more than the salty water that were her tears.

Little did he know that her love would soon be proven strong for good; nothing good comes from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Malfoy.